Ben Collier, PhD

Consulting

Consulting and custom education

I help organizations choose which AI and analytics projects to fund, check the models before they carry a real decision, and train their teams to run the work themselves. I do this through my practice, Hot Metal AI.

Custom education

Training built on your data

Workshops and courses for technical teams and executives, built around your own data and problems. Most of the time is spent in hands-on labs.

Formats

  • One- to three-day workshops, on site or online
  • Multi-week programs for technology leaders and executives
  • Recorded, self-paced courses

Examples

  • Professional development courses for technology leaders and executives at Optum, AT&T, Cox Communications, and RapidScale.
  • Workshops on chatbot development, data programming, SQL and NoSQL, data mining, cloud infrastructure, and agile development.
  • The kind of recorded course I can build for a team: the MS in Business Analytics Math Skills Workshop, about thirty short videos I scripted and recorded for incoming Carnegie Mellon MS in Business Analytics students.

AI and data consulting

Reviews and builds

From deciding which AI projects are worth funding to reviewing a model before it carries a real decision.

Formats

  • AI use-case review. About two weeks. A written go or no-go on the projects you are considering, with a build plan for the ones worth doing.
  • Model or metric review. About one week. I read the code, data, and evaluation, and tell you where it breaks.
  • Hands-on build. Scoped with you: a prototype, a pipeline, or an evaluation harness your team can keep running.

Through Hot Metal AI

  • A recommendation engine for healthcare specialist referrals, built for a healthcare client.

In industry roles

  • At UPMC's Pensiamo, as founding data scientist on a joint venture with IBM Watson Health, I did the machine learning research and built the production pipelines for CognitiveRx, a drug price and shortage tool for a 40-hospital system buying $1.5 billion of pharmaceuticals a year. Premier later acquired it.
  • At Duolingo, experimentation, monetization analytics, and forecasting through the IPO and the launch of Duolingo Max.
  • At gAIm Systems, AI tools and research studies that help sports teams recruit players, develop them, and build rosters.

I also advise MS in Business Analytics capstone teams working with companies such as Westinghouse, RBC Wealth Management, and Swank Construction, and starting in Spring 2027, capstone teams in the MBA Business Analytics track. See those projects.

Book time Most engagements start with a free 15-minute call.

Background

  1. 2025 to nowgAIm Systems Senior Director of AI and Data Science
  2. 2023 to nowTepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics, after starting as an adjunct in Fall 2023
  3. 2020 to 2023Duolingo Senior, lead, then staff data scientist, on monetization
  4. 2018 to nowHot Metal AI Founder. Analytics consulting and corporate training, alongside everything else
  5. 2016 to 2020UPMC's Pensiamo Data scientist, then Senior Director of Data Science
  6. 2012 to 2016Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar Assistant Teaching Professor of Organizational Behavior, and co-director of executive education

Full CV